MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/. Russia’s retaliatory measures in response to the European Union’s blocking of Russian assets will follow shortly, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"Brussels is carefully concealing the fact that it will be citizens of EU countries who will ultimately pay for these political ambitions. Our retaliatory actions will follow shortly," the diplomat emphasized. "A detailed statement on this matter was published by the Bank of Russia on December 12. Specific steps are already being implemented. On the same day, Russia’s regulator announced that it had filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court against the Euroclear depository, seeking compensation for losses incurred by the Bank of Russia," she added.

"At the same time, the European Union itself will no longer be able to make up for the damage that such actions will inflict both on its own financial and economic system and on its reputation worldwide as what was once a reliable trade and investment partner. Such misdemeanors in international relations do not go without consequences," Zakharova added.

The diplomat also noted that the European Union’s policy toward Russia has long been devoid of any sound logic and resembles a theater of the absurd, while Brussels’ course of inflicting damage on Russia at any cost has already led to a dire economic situation within the EU itself.

"The European Union’s policy towards Russia has long been stripped of any rational logic and resembles a theater of the absurd. The course aimed at harming our country at any cost has already resulted in a highly deplorable economic situation within the EU itself: virtually zero economic growth, rapidly rising public debt and budget deficits, declining production, and deindustrialization amid skyrocketing energy costs," the diplomat emphasized.

The diplomat noted that any disposal of Russia’s sovereign assets without Russia’s consent — "whether it be their indefinite freezing, seizure, or attempts to present their de facto confiscation as some kind of ‘reparations loan’ — constitutes an absolutely unlawful act that grossly violates the norms of international law."

"No matter what pseudo-legal maneuvers Brussels may attempt to use to justify this, we are talking about outright, plain theft," Zakharova stated.

She once again stressed that the European Union is seeking by all means to undermine efforts to settle the Ukraine conflict, which explains the rush to adopt a decision on Russian assets aimed at delivering a direct blow to the peace initiatives of US President Donald Trump.

"It is also obvious that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her associates have made it a key objective of their efforts to undermine, by any means, the search for peaceful ways to resolve the Ukrainian crisis. Hence the haste and the timing chosen for the decision on Russian assets — to deliver a direct blow to the peace initiatives of US President Donald Trump," the diplomat stressed in a comment to a media inquiry regarding the EU’s freezing of Russian assets.